COMBE LAUNCHES HOT HATCH SERIES

New series to allow for additional demand as Saloons interest continues to grow

Castle Combe Racing Club has launched a new Hot Hatch series for its 2017 season to cater for non-turbo saloon cars.

The CCRC Hot Hatch Challenge will run across four of the club’s meetings next year, with each event featuring one 15-minute qualifying session and a 20-minute race.

The Challenge will feature four classes, with all front wheel cars with 2.1-litre engines or below eligible.

With high levels of interest in the club’s Saloon Car Championship, the series has been launched to compensate for any overflow and to give cars that are no longer eligible for the Saloons championship a category to compete in.

Competitions director of the CCRC Steve Weston said the series will also fill a gap on its schedule created by the demise of the Sports Series, which featured only three runners in its final meeting of 2016.

“The new series is an opportunity to try and encourage some of the older cars to return and join the present cars that don’t necessarily have an opportunity to be competitive, with the high budgets of some of the front running and turbo cars in saloons,” Weston said.

Several current Saloon Championship entrants were enthusiastic about the proposed new series. James Keepin, who runs an MG ZR in the current category, said: “It should give the opportunity for the spectators to see some different kinds of cars racing.”

Former Saloons champion Will Di Claudio, was also hopeful the new series would see some diverse machinery return to Combe.

“There are drivers wanting to do Saloons who can’t get in, and it will be good to see some older cars return to the circuit,” he said. “I’ll hopefully enter my Peugeot 205 GTI, all being well.”

Weston highlighted the possibility for the Hot Hatch Challenge to act as a feeder to the current Saloons competition.

“The main saloon championship has proved extremely popular with reserves on several occasions, and we felt we could run the new series as almost a feeder to the main championship,” he added.

“We will see how it goes but the main thing is that the Challenge should be an inexpensive and fun series to enter.”